Navy medicine detailing

[IgD]

My friend calls me today and says the Navy medicine leadership told him he is going to location X during 2009. The problem is my other friend is at location X through 2010. This suggests that the Navy medicine leadership is planning to send my other friend on a one year deployment.

Why don't they just tell him directly instead of him finding out through the grapevine like this? Very poor leadership.

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[crazybrancato]

okayy?! well if you're going to tell us a story and throw the "poor leadership flag" you gotta give a little more info than that, otherwise we don't know WTF you're talking about . . .

by 'the leadership', are you talking about the guy's CO, or a detailer? and what's wrong with having friend A and friend B there at the same time . . .sometimes these redundancies are built into deployments on purpose, for the purposes of turnover. how long are they going to overlap? and what did the leadership tell him, that he'd be going for < 1 year, > 1 year ???

well regardless of what anyone tells him, he'll know for sure when he gets his orders . . .

 

[BigNavyPedsGuy]

okayy?! well if you're going to tell us a story and throw the "poor leadership flag" you gotta give a little more info than that, otherwise we don't know WTF you're talking about . . .

by 'the leadership', are you talking about the guy's CO, or a detailer? and what's wrong with having friend A and friend B there at the same time . . .sometimes these redundancies are built into deployments on purpose, for the purposes of turnover. how long are they going to overlap? and what did the leadership tell him, that he'd be going for < 1 year, > 1 year ???

well regardless of what anyone tells him, he'll know for sure when he gets his orders . . .

incoherent . . . . word thoughts . . . . must defend . . . . . .

 

[crazybrancato]

incoherent . . . . word thoughts . . . . must defend . . . . . .

incoherent? how so? I'm saying IgD didn't provide enough details in his story, for anyone to come to the 'poor leadership' conclusion, so I asked further questions . . . hell I don't know the people in this situation, this could be textbook example of poor leadership!

aye vae!! you're a gmo, I'm sure you've deployed, I'm sure you've been dicked around with plenty . . . none of my 4 deployment ever went smoothly. one was almost 10 months long at sea.

if we got everybody in the Navy to log on here and gripe about deployment schedules and optempos, we'd crash this server (as is it seems to crash every so often).

 

[IgD]

...what's wrong with having friend A and friend B there at the same time . . .sometimes these redundancies are built into deployments on purpose, for the purposes of turnover. how long are they going to overlap? and what did the leadership tell him, that he'd be going for < 1 year, > 1 year ???

There are no redundancies and there will be no overlap. The point is Navy medicine leadership is planning to deploy my friend and backfill him with my other friend and they didn't tell him directly about it.

 

[crazybrancato]

There are no redundancies and there will be no overlap. The point is Navy medicine leadership is planning to deploy my friend and backfill him with my other friend and they didn't tell him directly about it.

ok, well then that's the fault of whoever's coordinating these deployments. maybe they have good reason for backfilling like that, maybe not. yeah, they should've told him. just tell him to sit tight until he gets his orders and figures out what's really going on.

 

[The White Coat Investor]

There are no redundancies and there will be no overlap. The point is Navy medicine leadership is planning to deploy my friend and backfill him with my other friend and they didn't tell him directly about it.

Maybe they were trying not to ruin Christmas for him? I've held off telling my docs they're being deployed until they returned from leave. Why ruin a perfectly good vacation when they're not leaving for two months anyway?

 

[BigNavyPedsGuy]

incoherent? how so? I'm saying IgD didn't provide enough details in his story, for anyone to come to the 'poor leadership' conclusion, so I asked further questions . . . hell I don't know the people in this situation, this could be textbook example of poor leadership!

aye vae!! you're a gmo, I'm sure you've deployed, I'm sure you've been dicked around with plenty . . . none of my 4 deployment ever went smoothly. one was almost 10 months long at sea.

if we got everybody in the Navy to log on here and gripe about deployment schedules and optempos, we'd crash this server (as is it seems to crash every so often).

The longest I've actually been out is a month. I'm not here to gripe about deployments. IgD's post was a pretty big example ofthe frustration that's out there. In the operational side, most people at least have a deployment cycle. They can plan their life around it. They have sea billets and shore billets. On the medical side, there's always a nagging feeling in the back of their mind that they might be sent off.

The classic example: When I was at the MTF My dept head sent out an e-mail titles "short fused tasker" It was May and he needed someone to leave in June for a 15months IA deployment with the army. And he needed the name by the end of the day. The guy who ended up going had a 2 week old when he found out.

Yes, I know, deployments are a part of the job, but at least operational side knows if they are in a sea billet or shore billet. They know their deployment cycle. They know what will be family friendly times and what won't.

The fact that someone was about to get the rug yanked out from under him and his boss (read Navy) wouldn't even tell him, is and example of poor leadership.

 

[The White Coat Investor]

Of all the things I have to complain about regarding military medicine, deployments is the one I feel worst about complaining. No matter what a recruiter told us when we signed up, we all knew about deployments. Granted, we thought they'd be few, and we thought they'd be short, and we thought they'd be with our service, and we thought our skills would actually be used when we were out there, but we ARE military physicians, and deployment medicine is what we do. That's what we're here to do. That's the only difference between us and the contractors we work next to (for 1/2 the money incidentally.)

A little notice is nice. But come on, we've got better things to complain about than being deployed.

It's like my wife today was trying to make plans for this summer. I kindly informed here that for the next two years we don't make plans 6 or 8 months in advance. We make them 1-2 months in advance (we usually get 2 months notice on our deployments.) Sacrifices like that are just part of the job. Think patriotic thoughts, put your head down, and go to work.

 

[bogatyr]

That's the only difference between us and the contractors we work next to (for 1/2 the money incidentally.)

1/3 of the money

 

[crazybrancato]

Of all the things I have to complain about regarding military medicine, deployments is the one I feel worst about complaining. No matter what a recruiter told us when we signed up, we all knew about deployments. Granted, we thought they'd be few, and we thought they'd be short, and we thought they'd be with our service, and we thought our skills would actually be used when we were out there, but we ARE military physicians, and deployment medicine is what we do. That's what we're here to do. That's the only difference between us and the contractors we work next to (for 1/2 the money incidentally.)

A little notice is nice. But come on, we've got better things to complain about than being deployed.

It's like my wife today was trying to make plans for this summer. I kindly informed here that for the next two years we don't make plans 6 or 8 months in advance. We make them 1-2 months in advance (we usually get 2 months notice on our deployments.) Sacrifices like that are just part of the job. Think patriotic thoughts, put your head down, and go to work.

Ahah! ActiveDutyMD, I could kiss you , you hit the nail right on, you get it! It's unfortunate that you were lied to by recruiters, that you'd constantly be using your skills, it would always be great professional development, etc etc. of course we all know, there's many times on deployment when you're bored out of your mind! that goes for line and support communities.

BigNavyPeds, the example you gave was an unfortunate one of people getting screwed. . . .it happens PLENTY on the operational side. my 3 month cruise got turned into a 10 month deployment (per the '04 tsunami, but nobody couldve forseen that). had a friend at SURFPAC, was supposed to be a shore rotation, got deployed to Africa! . . . and many more examples . . .it's not a facet of the MC, it's a facet of military life.

 

[IgD]

Maybe they were trying not to ruin Christmas for him? I've held off telling my docs they're being deployed until they returned from leave. Why ruin a perfectly good vacation when they're not leaving for two months anyway?

What message does it send when he learns from me that he is going to be deployed rather than the horse's mouth?

I appreciate your comments. I'm not complaining about the deployment. I'm complaining this situation was not appropriately handled and it gives an appearance of under the table dealings and impropriety.

I found the operational side to be different. They put things on the table and tried to be proactive as much as possible. Leaders also "lead from the front" instead of trying to duck deployments.

 

[The White Coat Investor]

What message does it send when he learns from me that he is going to be deployed rather than the horse's mouth?

I appreciate your comments. I'm not complaining about the deployment. I'm complaining this situation was not appropriately handled and it gives an appearance of under the table dealings and impropriety.

I found the operational side to be different. They put things on the table and tried to be proactive as much as possible. Leaders also "lead from the front" instead of trying to duck deployments.

I agree. It is inappropriate. Although the truth is that most of the deployments that happen in my MDG "leak" from the readiness office rather than coming through the chain of command. I know one doc who heard about his from his wife (a MDG contractor) who heard it from someone in readiness. I certainly wouldn't want to find out from someone other than my boss, but having had 15 months notice for my first deployment, in a lot of ways I wish I'd had 15 days.

 

[The White Coat Investor]

Ahah! ActiveDutyMD, I could kiss you , you hit the nail right on, you get it! It's unfortunate that you were lied to by recruiters, that you'd constantly be using your skills, it would always be great professional development, etc etc. of course we all know, there's many times on deployment when you're bored out of your mind!

Please stop drooling on my boots.

 

[BigNavyPedsGuy]

Of all the things I have to complain about regarding military medicine, deployments is the one I feel worst about complaining. No matter what a recruiter told us when we signed up, we all knew about deployments. Granted, we thought they'd be few, and we thought they'd be short, and we thought they'd be with our service, and we thought our skills would actually be used when we were out there, but we ARE military physicians, and deployment medicine is what we do. That's what we're here to do. That's the only difference between us and the contractors we work next to (for 1/2 the money incidentally.)

A little notice is nice. But come on, we've got better things to complain about than being deployed.

It's like my wife today was trying to make plans for this summer. I kindly informed here that for the next two years we don't make plans 6 or 8 months in advance. We make them 1-2 months in advance (we usually get 2 months notice on our deployments.) Sacrifices like that are just part of the job. Think patriotic thoughts, put your head down, and go to work.

Fair enough. I deserved that.

 

[BomberDoc]

1/3 of the money

try 1/6 and you'll be ballpark

 

[The White Coat Investor]

try 1/6 and you'll be ballpark

Ooh, that's bad. It's about 40% for my specialty.